There are a wide variety of electrical connectors particularly adapted for terminating flat circuitry, such as flat flexible cables, flexible printed circuit boards and the like. These electrical connectors typically have a housing mounting a plurality of terminals in a generally parallel array spaced along an elongated opening or slot for receiving an end of the flat circuit.
When the circuit is terminated in the connector, the circuit must be held so that it cannot be withdrawn. Prior methods of holding the circuit include cutting holes or slots in the center of the circuit or cutting notches in the side of the circuit for engaging one or more holding projections on the connector housing. This system creates problems in that there are only a limited number of holding points and each holding point places a high stress on the circuit which may result in tearing the circuit. Another system is to frictionally grip the circuit. These systems create problems in that the forces required to adequately grip the circuit are so high that the connector housing must be reinforced to accommodate the forces, thereby unnecessarily increasing the size of the overall connector envelope.
Some connectors for flat flexible circuits use actuators to push the flexible circuits against resilient contact portions of the terminals. Again, such actuator systems often use restricted contact points or frictional gripping which causes excessive insertion forces.
The present invention is directed to solving these problems in an actuator-type connector for a flat flexible circuit wherein the engagement area between the actuator and the circuit is very large to prevent any tearing of the circuit, and the insertion forces required to insert the cable into the connector are minimal.